One Touch
by CherriesandRoses89
Summary: They say love finds you in it’s own time. They also say that love hurts and the first cut is the deepest. For the first time, she unlocked the door and let him in, but it only brought her pain. FULL SUMMARY INSIDE.


**Title:** Dé-ja vu

**Author:**CherriesandRoses89

**Characters/Pairing:**Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Neji

**Type:** One-shot (In-Progress)

**Genre:** General/Romance

**Word Count:** 2329

**Rating:**T/M (precaution for later chapters)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-san.

**Summary:**They say love finds you in it's own time. They also say that love hurts and the first cut is the deepest. She had been wary of the opposite gender all her life. She trusted most only her childhood friends. She though University life might be different, not worse. For the first time, she unlocked the door and let him in, the first one to cross the threshold. But taking a chance only brought her the pain she so desperately did not want to encounter. This time, did she really love?

**_THIS STORY IS BASED ON TRUE EVENTS_**

**Chapter Last Revised on:** 29/12/07

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Sakura laughed heartily, her hand moving of its own accord to her lips as she did so, while Ino fought to stop herself from spraying berry juice down her front. They had just gotten out of the spacious seminar hall where the freshmen's orientation had just ended. They now sat under a cherry-blossom tree in the University's wide grounds.

"But, of course, she wasn't so happy once she realized that it wasn't real sake in the stash Shizune had given to her as a Thanksgiving present and she still had loads of paperwork!" Uzumaki Naruto was saying, clutching his stomach as he rocked back and forth with suppressed mirth. Apparently, a friendly second year student had relayed the amusing story to him while leading the lost freshman to his orientation. The interesting narration concerned the Dean of the Tokyo University, who, despite her outwardly strict sadist appearance at times, was known to often 'avoid' her official office work as often as was respectfully possible.

Yamanaka Ino glanced at her watch and then at her new timetable and the blonde got to her feet.

"Is it time already?" asked Sakura, looking at her own watch, brushing her shoulder-length rosette hair out of her eyes. "Ah, indeed it is. Well, let's get going. Our professors won't appreciate our being late on the very first day, I suppose."

"Huh?" Naruto glanced at the partially crumpled timetable in his lap. "You take Art?" he addressed both girls.

"No," said Ino. "I have Advanced Algebra now. But Sakura takes Art."

"You take Art, Sakura-chan? But I thought you were going to take Medicine."

"I decided against it," the green-eyed rosette replied, gathering her bag and few books. "I'm majoring in Psychology instead; although I haven't yet decided which field I should specialize in."

"Specialize in?" said Naruto.

"Yes, I'm thinking either Clinical or Child Psychology."

"And Art just happens to interest you?" said the blond, obviously not comprehending her words and deciding to change the topic.

"Well," Sakura replied, "there's much more to Art than just beauty frozen in time, you know. Each work of art conveys the artists' feelings, thoughts, emotions. The relation of Psychology and Art is a magnificent study. Putting the two together will help, in a way, to understand the mind and how emotion is translated by oneself and by others."

"Uh…"

Sakura sighed, exasperated, and Ino slapped her own forehead. "I just want to, okay?"

"Oh," said Naruto. "Alright then. Oh damn!" he added as he looked at his watch. I've been told that Ibiki-sensei will kill me even if I'm five seconds late! Where does Economics come into Business anyway? Oh well, gotta run!" And he was on his feet and running to the Business Department before either girl could say 'bye'.

"I'll see you later then," said Sakura. Ino nodded and they parted ways. Before Sakura could push on the metal bar of the double doors of the Psychology Department building, however, the door swung outwards and she found herself staring at a wide chest clothed in simple beige.

"Oops!" she exclaimed softly before she could stop herself, and then looked up to see the face of the person who stood in her way. Her eyes widened slightly with ill-disguised surprise as she stared into a handsomely pale face. Lavender-pearl-grey eyes blinked behind rectangular glasses and the pale youth smiled briefly at the young girl in amusement.

Sakura's brain seemed to have gone into overdrive, and yet experienced a functional error at the same time. She willed her lips to move, to form words, willed herself to day something, anything; but it felt as if she had lost all control of her muscles. There was something strangely familiar about the tall, bespectsacled, chocolate-haired young man who stood before her. Her brain told her that she had once known this young man; she just hadn't seen him for many years. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered Naruto telling her, "_Yeah, I heard he's going to the same University." _

She knew that she did know this youth's name. it was on the tip of her tongue. But no words were uttered by her tongue, which seemed to have lost all ability to move. She mentally kicked herself. This was not the time to be acting like an idiot!

_**Not in front of a distractingly handsome — **_

Sakura mentally slapped her inner self.

— Not in front of someone who was apparently an old, long-forgotten friend. To buy herself time, she pushed her own rectangular glasses further up the bridge of her small nose.

The handsome youth smirked. "You're Sakura, right?" It was not said as a question. Sakura nodded and just succeeded in keeping her eyebrows from flying beyond her forehead. She tried to speak, but all she managed was what must have sounded like a bewildered, "Uh.." which might have sounded like she was trying to remember his name. Her face must have also looked confused instead of betraying the slight shock she felt at hearing her own name from his lips because he then added:

"It's Neji."

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Two lecture hours and running down corridors and hallways from one wrong room to another later, Sakura found hersaelf seated in the second row of Hall 101 of the Psychology Department, listening to a professor who introduced himself as Hatake Kakashi, brief them on the course outline for their first semester as the silver-haired, masked, thirty-something-year-old Psychology professor lazily handed out thin booklets.

"All in all, I trust you will find this course very amusing and intriguing, as well as challenging," Hatake Kakashi was saying. "But remember, the mind is not something so simple as to be compared to an open book. The mind is a complex and many-layered phenomenon. One can study the brain and how it functions while comprehending nothing of the mind. Similarly, you can understand the mind without knowing much about the scientific biological functions of the brain itself. So you see, the study of psychology, the study of the mind, the quest to understand understanding, is indeed so magnificent it may sometimes seem almost daunting. But I assure you, it will be a glorious adventure, one that I am honored to be given the chance to guide you on …"

Sakura flipped through the pages of the booklet, her eyes not reading the core syllabus or the course outline or the frighteningly extensive list of promised projects and assignments. Nor did she hear the rest of Kakashi's words on the glorious, adventurous study of the human mind and the distinction of the mind from the brain itself. The lecture hall swam before her eyes and Kakashi's voice sounded far away as a long-forgotten memory pulled on her consciousness. She strained to see it, to remember it, whatever it was. She wondered what had triggered it, awakened it, but as she looked back at the previous hours of her first day as a freshman, she found no reason for the relentless nagging of that long-forgotten memory.

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The first day passed quickly enough, and before long, Haruno Sakura found herself walking, quite alone, to the University parking lot in search of Ino's bright blue sedan. She walked slowly, uncertainly, jostled by seniors hurrying about, the mischievous avoiding the ever-watchful eyes of security guards, laughing with friends. As she saw this, Sakura could not help but feel a sort of resentment. She had made a few acquaintances in the Psychology Department, but it seemed that she wouldn't be making friends any time too soon. True, she had known Yamanaka Ino since Junior High, but Ino did not take Psychology or Art. Ino attended most of her lectures in a building quite distant from the College of Psychology and Sakura was sure they wouldn't be seeing much of each other on campus — not when several of Ino's former fellow club members were on campus.

Not having paid much attention to the people around her, Sakura accidentally bumped into someone. "Sorry," she murmured and proceeded to walk faster.

"Hey, sorry about that, miss," said a male voice.

"Don't worry about it," she replied without looking back.

"Hey, miss! I said I was sorry!"

Starting to get irritated, Sakura waved her hand in a clearly dismissive manner. She was sure the boy had heard her the first time.

"Maybe she doesn't understand what we're saying?" his companion suggested; Sakura heard the laughter in his voice. "Maybe she speaks another language. Y'know, she looks Japanese, but maybe she's Spanish or something."

Sakura knew what they were trying to do, but before she could stop herself, she retorted, "Or maybe you're just deaf."

"Oohh.." said both boys, mock fearfully. Having turned her head halfway, she could see that both were quite distastefully dressed and had unkempt hair. She cringed when she realized that the one she had accidentally bumped into was wearing a checkered shirt in baby pink and white, not dissimilar from a blouse she had at home. _I am _never _wearing that blouse to the University, _ever She swore silently. Clearly they thought they were the height of cool.

"Well," said the second boy who, thankfully, had on a plain white shirt that somehow looked like it had not been washed in weeks, "He _did_ say he was sorry, you know. And you didn't respond."

Sakura could see them both snicker. Yet again, her indignant tongue was too fast for her as she snapped, "And I _did_ say it didn't matter," before turning back and beginning to walk away. But both boys disregarded her dismissive tone.

"Look, sorry about that miss," said the first boy again, still walking behind her with his friend. "Didn't meant o bother you, really. I just thought that if I didn't apologize, you might slap me or something."

Sakura rolled her eyes at his insistent stupidity.

"Actually," he went on, "I want you to slap me. Yeah! Come on, please slap me! Please? Just once? Come on!"

Outraged and highly embarrassed (there _were_ other people around — a _lot_ of them), Haruno Sakura walked quickly away in a huff.

Not soon enough, however, Sakura realized she was not where she was supposed to be. This wasn't the Interior Design Department parking lot. There were way too many people who looked like Albert-Einstein's-descendant-wannabes carrying huge business, economics and arithmetic textbooks, not to mention those who were carrying laptops, dressed in two-piece suits and looked like they were on their way to the office — maybe they really were.

"You look lost," said a kind male voice. Sakura spun round, prepared to face another ragging by seniors, but was surprised — and pleased — the find herself face to face with Hyuuga Neji.

"Oh, hi!" she said. "Well, yes, kind of lost, I suppose."

"Aa," he said, pushing his glasses up his long nose. "Who or what are you looking for? Or where are you supposed to be?" he asked.

"Um, actually, I'm looking for my friend's car. She's in Interior Designing."

"Oh, then that will be just the next lot over there," he said matter-of-factly, pointing east. "Come on, I'll take you there."

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Sakura followed him through the Business Administration's car park and across a lengthy patch of grass. As they walked and talked, Sakura couldn't help but observe: he was at least two heads taller than her — she herself was of petite stature at merely 5'4", though, while he must have been nearly 6' — had a lean but muscular build, and eyes that had a serious, piercing gaze, but was capable, when he wanted them to, of being soft.

"So which department are you in?" he asked her.

"I'm majoring in Psychology," she replied. "But I'm taking up Art as well."

"Psychology and Art? Nice combination, but a typical expectation of you, I suppose."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing of it. "What about you? What are you taking?"

"Me, I'm taking Business Administration. I always liked the subject, even in High School."

Though the conversation was limited to question and answer and had the aura of uncertainty as it tends to with new acquaintances, Sakura was surprised — while at the same time delighted — that she felt very comfortable around this young man. Maybe it was the fact that they had been classmates briefly in Junior High before she had changed schools.

"Ah, here we are. Oh, look that must be your friend calling you from over there." True, Sakura saw Ino waving from a distance of about fifty feet.

"Well, thanks for taking me here," said Sakura.

"No problem," he replied. "Oh, one more thing."

"What is it?"

"You haven't been to the cafeteria yet, have you?"

"No, why?"

"Try to avoid that place for at least two to three weeks."

"Avoid the cafeteria? Why should I do that?"

"Seniors. They have this nasty habit of ragging the freshmen. So try not to walk around alone, too."

Sakura smiled. "_Now_ you tell me." And she laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"I know from recent experience what it's like."

"What?" said Neji, his face suddenly a mixture of astonishment and concern. "When? What happened?"

"Oh, just a few minutes ago. It was nothing, really! But Ino's waiting for me now, so maybe I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

"Alright then," he said, glancing at his watch. "I've got to be going to, anyway. Sasuke doesn't like to wait. See you." And he turned to leave.

Suddenly, she felt that nagging in her brain again. "Neji?" she called out, tentatively.

"What is it?" he asked, turning his head only halfway.

"I was just wondering," she began, her eyes narrowed as she thought over what she was asking him. "Were you the one — "

"Yes," he said with a smirk, not even allowing her to finish her question. "It was me. Second or third grade, if I'm not wrong, about five years old? Yeah, we used to sit beside each other in the schoolbus and I used to wear your headband."

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**Author's Note:**

I hope you liked this. This is going to be a the longest one shot I have ever written thus far!  
I know Neji is a bit OOC, but that was the only way I could manage to fit his character into this story.

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all:)

Your reviews will motivate me to write.  
Thank you.

--Gloria.

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